Bibcode
DOI
Erwin, Peter; Beckman, John E.; Pohlen, Michael
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 626, Issue 2, pp. L81-L84.
Advertised on:
6
2005
Journal
Citations
204
Refereed citations
172
Description
The disks of spiral galaxies are commonly thought to be truncated: the
radial surface brightness profile steepens sharply beyond a certain
radius (3-5 inner disk scale lengths). Here we present the radial
brightness profiles of a number of barred S0-Sb galaxies with the
opposite behavior: their outer profiles are distinctly shallower in
slope than the main disk profile. We term these ``antitruncations'' they
are found in at least 25% of a larger sample of barred S0-Sb galaxies.
There are two distinct types of antitruncations. About one-third show a
fairly gradual transition and outer isophotes that are progressively
rounder than the main disk isophotes, suggestive of a disk embedded
within a more spheroidal outer zone-either the outer extent of the bulge
or a separate stellar halo. But the majority of the profiles have rather
sharp surface brightness transitions to the shallower, outer exponential
profile and, crucially, outer isophotes that are not significantly
rounder than the main disk; in the Sab-Sb galaxies, the outer isophotes
include visible spiral arms. This suggests that the outer light is still
part of the disk. A subset of these profiles are in galaxies with
asymmetric outer isophotes (lopsided or one-armed spirals), suggesting
that interactions may be responsible for at least some of the disklike
antitruncations.